BV 1520 
.D8 
Copy 1 



NEW WAY 
TO SOLVE 
OLD PROBLEMS 

FRANK E. DUDDY 




Book, M___ 

Copyright]^'? 



COFjffilGiJT DEPOSm 



A NEW WAY TO 
SOLVE OLD PROBLEMS 



A NEW WAY TO 
SOLVE OLD PROBLEMS 



BY 

FRANK E. DUDDY 

ASSISTANT PASTOR AND DIRECTOR OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 
IN FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, TOLEDO, OHIO 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1921 



^ \j \^'!'^ 



Copyright, 1921, bt 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 



M 2^ \^z\ 



THE SCRIBNER PRESS 



ICU617453 



TO THE TEACHERS AND OFFICERS OF 

FIRST CHURCH SCHOOL 

IN SINCERE APPRECIATION OF THEIR UNFAILING 
LOYALTY AND CO-OPERATION 



FOREWORD 

The need of true religious education of the 
youth of our day is so urgent that more thought 
and less tradition must be set to the task. Re- 
ligious truth can enter the minds of boys and girls, 
but it must enter by true psychological doors. 
Fine Christian character can take deeper hold 
upon the lives of young folks if the expressions of 
that character can reach them by the smooth 
roads of high-grade teaching. If we expect to 
educate our youth we must plan for the careful 
use of more time to do it. Study courses that 
truly meet the needs of young minds are expres- 
sions of good judgment in religion as in any other 
area of life. 

The story of methods and the outline of study 
contained in this little book, represent the sin- 
cere and fearless attempt upon the part of a 
church to meet more completely and more ef- 
ficiently the needs of religious education. Great 
credit is due to Professor Clayton C. Kohl for 
the searching and thought-provoking way in 
which he placed before the teachers and officers 
of the First Church Bible School the religious- 
education conditions of our day. In all the 
months of discussion and planning Professor 

vii 



viii FOREWORD / 

Kohl had the confidence and support of the pastor 
of the church and the religious-work director. 
The splendid results could not have come to 
pass without the tactful, intelligent, painstaking, 
and enthusiastic leadership of Reverend Frank 
E. Duddy, the religious- work director. Still 
more gratifying, if possible, was the Fay officers, 
teachers, and parents saw the new approaches 
and co-operated with loyalty, intelligence, and 
enthusiasm in bringing the new and enriched 
school into actual life and service. 

The results are: enthusiasm upon the part of 
the scholars, joy and confidence in the hearts and 
minds of the parents, a new and wonderful spirit 
and expectation throughout the whole church, 
and a prophecy of intelligent and loyal Christians 
for the future. 

Allen A. Stockdale, 

PastaVy First Congregational Churchy 

Toledoy Ohio. 



PREFACE 

Since the war there has been an insistent de- 
mand for more religion. Among the first to 
point out the vital need was one of the country's 
foremost statisticians. His plea for more re- 
ligion in business was followed by many state- 
ments of others interested in business methods 
to the effect that unless more religion was forth- 
coming the business of the country was in a fair 
way to go on the rocks of moral bankruptcy. 
Labor began to call for the application of Chris- 
tian principles to the status of the workman. 
Educators, headed by several of the presidents 
of the larger universities, took up the cry and 
told their students that the world needed more 
than ever a profession and living of vital religion. 
Social-service workers sounded anew their note of 
the responsibility of a man to his neighbor. 

This demand has not been lost upon the church. 
She is endeavoring in every way at her command 
to give to the world more religion. Some of these 
ways, however, lack decidedly in an ability to 
function efficiently; they do not produce the re- 
sults desired. Upon no department of church 
activity does this criticism fall more justly than 
upon the department which teaches its children 



X PREFACE / 

to worship. Religion will never mean a great deal 
to a child unless he grows up in its spirit, snd that 
spirit cannot be impressed upon him unless true 
worship is taught. Worship by the cultivation of 
attitudes of thoughtfulness, reverence, and prayer 
fosters the growth of religion, and no religion 
worthy of the name can be fostered in any other 
way. 

The time has come when the church must look 
into the work of her schools and find out just how 
much they are or are not doing in the teaching of 
worship; whether the children are coming to have 
a respect and love for the church and its teachings. 

Here lies the foundation for contemporary re- 
ligious education; there must be a spirit of wor- 
ship if religion is to come into its own. Sun- 
day-schools have not failed completely of their 
purpose, but they have come a long way from re- 
alizing some of the goals which are within their 
reach. If the members of any church would de- 
mand that the Sunday-school develop a spirit of 
worship in its children and actively co-operated 
with the minister and his helpers in securing that 
result, there would be a different kind of school 
in the church. But until that time of general in- 
terest and co-operation comes — that community 
of interests between church and Sunday-school — 
the spirit of worship will not be implanted in the 
heart of the child and the world will not receive 
from the church the religion it needs. 



CONTENTS 

PAGB 

Foreword vii 

Preface ix 

I. Psychological Grounds for a Change 1 

DOES OUR PRESENT CHURCH SCHOOL NEED 
REIklODELLING? IF SO, WHY? 

II. History of the Movement 12 

HOW FIRST CHURCH WENT ABOUT SOLV- 
ING THE OLD PROBLEMS 

III. Administration 18 

THE CHURCH BEHIND THE SCHOOL 

IV. Organization 21 

THE MACHINERY OF THE NEW PLAN 

V. The School at Work 28 

A GLIMPSE OF A SUNDAY PROGRAM 

VI. Equipment 36 

WHAT MATERIAL IS USED AND HOW THE 
EQUIPMENT A SCHOOL POSSESSES CAN 
BE UTILIZED 

VII. The Measuring of Results 40 

answers the question, " what has the 
school accomplished in its brief 
period of existence ?'* 

Appendix 47 

ust of books and lessons found 

USEFUL 



A NEW WAY TO SOLVE OLD PROBLEMS 
CHAPTER I 

PSYCHOLOGICAL GROUNDS FOR A CHANGE 

Any one desiring to effect radical changes in 
an institution of long standing and of great social 
worth faces a tremendous responsibility. Worn- 
out institutions are likely to be rendering greater 
service than progressive thinkers are willing to 
assign to them. The Sunday-school has a credit- 
able history, and it is still doing valuable work. 
No one should attack it without being fairly sure 
of his ground. Indirectly it has been attacked in 
a thousand ways by the very men and women who 
are keeping it alive. Those who write its lesson 
courses and helps also write the religious psychol- 
ogy and pedagogy that are dooming it to destruc- 
tion. Religious education has a fine body of 
literature, but the Sunday-school has not had 
leaders who have been willing to risk the funda- 
mental changes necessary for the adaptation of 
this literature to real school practice. Say what 
one will, the traditional Sunday-school is an ef- 
fete institution; and some one who realizes the 
responsibility and counts all the risks must ven- 
ture to launch a change. 

1 



2 PSYCHOLOGICAL GROUNDS FOR A CHANGE 

Those who attempt to put psychology and 
pedagogy into actual school practice face an ap- 
palling task. It demands hours and hours of 
prayer, weeks and weeks of study, and years and 
years of experimentation. When this psychology 
and pedagogy are religious, the task is more than 
appalling, it is overwhelming. An aim in theory 
is one thing, to translate it into terms of child 
consciousness is quite another; content on paper 
is a wholly different matter from content in the 
form of ideas and feelings; the method stated in 
the form of principles is a total stranger to the 
same rules or laws as expressed in the form of 
spiritual reactions. Any thoughtful person who 
has read a hundred of the best books on religious 
education may have an illuminating and shocking 
experience by visiting or teaching week after 
week in any average Sunday-school with his 
critical attention and judgment at their best. 
This is the precise experience that a rational re- 
former of the Sunday-school must have, at least 
in the beginning of his endeavors. This chapter 
attempts to sketch such an experience. 

According to modern thought, the aim of re- 
ligious education is to inculcate reverence for 
God, brotherhood of mankind, and all those 
great moral virtues which the common conscious- 
ness of the best of the race has found essential to 
refined personal character and efficient social 
service. Put into more concrete terms, the aim 



PSYCHOLOGICAL GROUNDS FOR A CHANGE 3 

is to instil progressively into the individuars 
mind and soul a love for Christ, an appreciative 
understanding of his philosophy of life, and an 
ever-abiding body of habits that will carry these 
out into conduct. So exalted and so comprehen- 
sive is the aim that no satisfactory expression of 
it in words is possible. Its ramifications are end- 
less and bewildering. Be this as it may, it is in- 
evitable; and it is toward this great goal that the 
Sunday-school must work. 

To translate this aim into terms of human con- 
sciousness, even child consciousness, is the prac- 
tical problem of the Sunday-school reformer. 
Thomas a Kempis, Rauschenbusch, Peabody, and 
Fosdick might offer great help, and yet they 
do not quite reach the teacher's special difficulty. 
He must get them into terms of mental processes 
in order that he can build. In attempting this, he 
discerns at once that the root of the religious aim 
is feeling — the most difficult thing in the world to 
educate, and the one aspect of mind about which 
least is known. The great goals of religious 
training are ideals, sentiments, attitudes, faith. 
The next thing he will notice is that knowledge 
supports these feelings, but not any kind of 
knowledge. The ideas that furnish the nourish- 
ment for these ideals is a particular kind of knowl- 
edge. Names of the books of the Bible, geog- 
raphy of the Holy Land, conceptual golden texts, 
may or may not be the kind of informational ma- 



4 PSYCHOLOGICAL GROUNDS FOR A CHANGE 

terial needed. A third psychological radiation of 
the aim is easily seen; namely, feelings live and 
have their being in habits of action as well as in 
ideas. The great moral virtues indissolubly 
linked with religion are in great part habit. 
Faith and creed cannot keep them alive if they 
are denied exercise. The aim, therefore, becomes 
something quite dynamic if it is ever to be gotten 
off the paper and into human minds. 

Still another phase of the problem of aim pre- 
sents itself: Is such an exalted and diflScult goal 
possible with children and youth? Religious 
psychologists say that it is. Hall, Coe, Dawson, 
and many others point out that the child and the 
youth are peculiarly responsive to certain of the 
greatest religious feelings. A thoughtful ob- 
server cannot help but feel that they are right. 
Practical teachers know that children and youth 
grasp many great ideas, at least in part; and they 
know that the young nervous system is quick to 
form habits. Child psychology, therefore, offers 
hope and cheer as one contemplates the great pur- 
pose of religious training. 

In the work of the Sunday-school lies a beauti- 
ful vision, if an artist instead of a clumsy hand 
could paint it. Now, in full contemplation of this 
work, turn to the Sunday-school as it is. Is 
reverence for God dawning in the pupils* minds? 
Is brotherly love manifesting itself more and 
more as the child progresses through the school? 



PSYCHOLOGICAL GROUNDS FOR A CHANGE 5 

Are the great moral virtues functioning more 
certainly as the days go on? Does the school 
breathe the atmosphere in which these normally 
live? Does the knowledge taught impinge upon 
the great feelings and habits that ought to be the 
ultimate aim? If religion is basically a set of 
ideals, feelings, and attitudes supported by 
proper knowledge and habits, then every psy- 
chological law governing their generation and 
development is violated in the traditional Sunday- 
school. A discussion of this forces a considera- 
tion of the environment of the school, the course 
of study, methods, and the teacher. 

The average Sunday-school room is usually a 
very uninviting place. Bare walls, pillars or posts, 
irregularly dispersed chairs and tables, gaudy 
prize stars, old bookcases no longer needed in the 
pastor's study, dirty blackboards with statistics 
of collections and attendance upon them, torn 
song-books, and much else of like character may 
be seen. No great feelings can endure in this. 
Moreover, many aspects of mob psychology are 
present in the average Sunday-school room when 
work is going on. Children and older people are 
rushing about to find their places, coming in at 
all times and going out at all times. Bells are ring- 
ing, secretaries and treasurers are running about 
their duties, material is being hunted, special 
announcements are being made, parties and 
special programmes are being planned, and classes 



6 PSYCHOLOGICAL GROUNDS FOR A CHANGE 

are reciting — all usually in one or at least a few 
rooms. The whole process takes all told an hour. 
Can reverence in this dwell? The sombre dig- 
nity of the great church with its organ and song 
is reserved for the adults; the basement is given 
to the Sunday-school. The stained-glass win- 
dows and the soft carpet are given to the men and 
women; the children take the appurtenances. 
Sentiments have settings; they live in associations 
that are congenial to them. Think of a cosey 
public-school room with its flowers, pictures, quiet, 
and its intimate group spirit and then come back 
to the Sunday-school room! No blindness, ex- 
cept that bred by tradition, could think of toler- 
ating such conditions as these to furnish an en- 
vironment for these wonderful emotions that the 
pulpit strives to engender — in adults. 

Another principle of the psychology of feeling 
is that it is contagious. By imitation and sug- 
gestion, radiating from personality, one catches 
sentiments from others. In day-schools there 
are many virile men and women who feel their 
calling, love their subjects, become enthusiastic in 
their presentations, linger in their rooms, read 
and talk their themes at every occasion, buy 
books and dream dreams and have visions. Con- 
trast the average Sunday-school teacher: late or 
absent; chosen because he or she is the sole avail- 
able person; untrained in any art of teaching; 
visionless or dead so far as dynamic religion is 



PSYCHOLOGICAL GROUNDS FOR A CHANGE 7 

concerned; with no sympathy for the dawning 
mind. From the athletic teacher the boy may 
catch the football spirit; from the butterjBy high- 
school girl the little girl may catch the taste for a 
ribbon; from the pious old lady the youth may 
catch what he calls the ^^jimjams.'^ This picture 
is crudely drawn, but with no unkindness. It is 
a simple fact. The athletic, the giddy, and the 
pious are not necessarily to be excluded from the 
Sunday-school staff; but there must be something 
added. Reverence for God, brotherliness, and 
faith in virtue must be there, too, if they are ever 
to pass from teacher to pupil. 

Another great law of the psychology of feeling 
is that its associated ideas and images are se- 
lected with a peculiar fitness to its hue and tem- 
per. The elements of every great feeling situa- 
tion are unique. There is something unitary 
about the situation. It is shot through and 
through with apperceptive ties. In the day-school 
Washington, Lincoln, the Revolution, the Civil 
War, Rip Van Winkle, The Children's Hour, Snow- 
Bound, and hosts of other personalities and scenes 
are studied through until a co-ordinated impres- 
sion or attitude is gotten. In the Sunday-school 
no great characters or scenes or events are pur- 
sued long enough or consistently enough to leave 
any unitary impression. So strong is the desire 
to inculcate a moral lesson, that texts give mere 
fragments and then proceed to moralize upon 



8 PSYCHOLOGICAL GROUNDS FOR A CHANGE 

them* Even the life of Christ, the most wonder- 
ful, simple, and penetrating in world history, is 
dealt with in a fragmentary way. By the side of 
day-school texts Sunday-school texts are an 
abomination. Sketchy, sentimentalized, chopped 
up by notes, illustrated by commonplaces, sugared 
over with a pale cast of baby-like talk, they be- 
come repulsive to healthy boys and girls. Leaf- 
lets are there in legion (teacher's manual, pupil's 
manual, first quarters, second quarters, helps, sug- 
gestions). Rarely does one ever have personality 
enough to make anybody desire to keep it. Great 
sentiments often cling about books — the Bible, for 
example. Lack of time and money are indeed 
great handicaps; but if love of country is worth 
magnificent texts of United States history, is not 
love for God and Christ and the prophets worth 
equally fine texts in language adapted to the 
young? We have them for adults outside of the 
Sunday-school. After one reads Dean Hodges's 
fine book on "Training Children in Religion," he 
often wonders if the Sunday-school is not injur- 
ing rather than helping the child toward a re- 
ligious culture. The great need in the Sunday- 
school course of study is that of having the Bible 
and other religious material organized from the 
point of view of a rational aim. The course is 
to-day what the course in general history in the 
day-school was thirty years ago — an epitome of 
facts. It is impossible to culture the great reli- 



PSYCHOLOGICAL GROUNDS FOR A CHANGE 9 

gious emotions on fragmentary ideas and images. 
The Bible and religious material exist in abun- 
dance; and much of it is excellent, some of it 
genuine art. Histories, stories, biographies, pic- 
tures, and dramas exist that could be woven into 
wonderful programmes of study for the church 
school. Beginnings have been made, but the great 
body of the work lies ahead. 

The unique character of the religious aim forces 
the reconstruction of many principles of method 
as developed in secular pedagogy. Teaching 
methods are in large part directed toward the in- 
tellectual aspects of the classroom. The religious 
aim, as pointed out above, is dominantly emo- 
tional. Thinking in science may have little ef- 
fective tone and yet function well; thinking in 
religion must function in faith and conduct. The 
appreciation element must run high in the Sun- 
day-school classroom. All teaching is an art; re- 
ligious teaching is a supreme art, so much so that 
some writers question whether religion can be 
taught. Two matters mentioned earlier in the 
chapter are fundamental to this question of 
method: one is the superior teacher and the other 
is the unitary lesson. When it comes to the de- 
tail of method, it is next to impossible to speak in 
specific terms. A few general principles, how- 
ever, may be sketched. Too much detail, too 
much analysis, too much expanding and elabora- 
tion are injurious to appreciation. A teacher 



10 PSYCHOLOGICAL GROUNDS FOR A CHANGE 

cannot do the appreciating for the pupils; they 
must read and tell stories and discuss and dram- 
atize. Contemplation and expression are psy- 
chological prerequisites for high sentiment. Teach- 
ers do all the work in the average Sunday-school to- 
day ; in the new school the pupils will do a large 
part of it. Another principle closely related to 
this resides in the relation between feeling and ac- 
tion. Ideals and motives and high purposes die 
when they do not function in real conduct. The 
scouting movement has caught this principle and 
is making some telling use of it. Sunday-school 
instruction vaporizes to-day; and this is due to 
weak class organization, lack of co-operation from 
the community life about. There is besides a 
naive isolation between the Sunday-school and the 
church itself. The former seems in almost no 
way to prepare or train for the latter. The ele- 
ment of worship central in the services of the 
church gets scant support in the school. Lack 
of time and indifference are in part the cause of 
this condition; but the fundamental reason for it 
lies in the fact that teachers and oflScers do not 
understand the aim of religious instruction when 
put into terms of mind and therefore have no cri- 
terion for the judging of methods. 

No one knows enough about the institutional 
teaching of religion to be justified in cynical dog- 
matism regarding it. Modern religious books 
make a powerful appeal even to laymen. Such 



PSYCHOLOGICAL GROUNDS FOR A CHANGE 11 

wonderful possibilities seem to lie in store for 
earnest workers that they cannot stand back 
longer and view effort going to waste. They are 
compelled to attempt the translation of these 
visions into working and workable religious in- 
struction. The simplest practical psychology 
shows that the Sunday-school as it now exists is 
almost ridiculous in some of its practices. The 
basic grounds for change do not reside in any 
materialistic conception of the problems. To 
furnish new equipment, new rooms, new teachers, 
and modern business methods will not, in them- 
selves, remedy the situation. The crucial prob- 
lem lies first and foremost in a vital understand- 
ing of the growth of the religious consciousness, 
and following this an adaptation of the content 
and method to the ends sought. Religious leaders 
are attempting the one, but practical workers are 
far behind with the other. 



CHAPTER II 

HISTORY OF THE MOVEMENT 

It was at a dinner of the teachers and officers 
of the church school in the latter part of May, 
1919, that this sentiment found expression: ^'All 
is not well with our school/' Reports had shown 
a higher percentage of attendance than formerly, 
larger financial gifts, but nowhere was mention 
made of better teaching or greater interest on the 
part of the pupils. The first speaker and those 
that followed remarked on the absence of such a 
statement, and the superintendent in conclusion 
frankly spoke of the growing dissatisfaction among 
teachers and parents with the lack of definite edu- 
cational results in the present conduct of the 
school. 

Suggestions were invited and given, the out- 
come of the discussion being the appointment of 
a committee consisting of the two pastors, the 
superintendent, and two other laymen. This 
committee was asked to go fully into the diffi- 
culties of the situation and upon the basis of 
their study give to the first fall meeting of the 
teachers and officers certain reform measures. 

A survey of the school revealed the faults com- 
12 



HISTORY OF THE MOVEMENT 13 

mon to the conventional type of Sunday-school, 
i, e.y too little time for lesson-study; overcrowding 
of rooms, and the consequent confusion, disorder, 
and lack of discipline; irregular and non-systematic 
instruction due to irregular attendance on the 
part of both teacher and pupil. These faults re- 
sulted inevitably in a pupil generally uninformed 
at the end of the year in the basic principles and 
facts which his course was supposed to teach. 
The ordinary pupil who had no help^ or interest, 
at home could not have passed the simplest kind 
of an examination covering the work of the year. 
To this state of affairs all the defects of the pres- 
ent system of school conduct had contributed; 
an environment existed which made it nearly im- 
possible for even the serious-minded student and 
teacher to do satisfactory work. 

Who was to blame? There could be no time 
wasted considering that point. Rather the ques- 
tion, how shall the faults be remedied and a new 
environment created ? demanded immediate an- 
swer. An attempt to solve the problem of over- 
crowding eventually showed the way to solve the 
whole problem. The school had been meeting 
from 12 to 1, all departments and classes crowded 
into the parish house if possible, the overflow con- 
vening in the church auditorium, a separate build- 
ing. The question suggested itself — ^why not 
have the younger children meet in the parish 
house during church service and the older children 



14 HISTORY OF THE MOVEMENT 

and adults have the extra room later ? The com- 
mittee agreed that the idea was worth considera- 
tion, and on the basis of creating a junior and a 
senior school began to shape plans for a completely 
revised programme of religious education in the 
church. 

Naturally with the making of new plans came 
the conception of finer ideals for the school — 
more earnest study, firmer discipline, and better 
informed pupils. It was agreed that if the school 
could not train the children for intelligent church- 
membership — ground them well in the knowledge 
of the Bible, church history, and first principles 
of Christian living — it had failed in the funda- 
mental duty of religious education. With the 
ideal then of preparing children through a period 
of eight years and kindergarten for ultimate 
church-membership, the scheme advanced beyond 
the stage of vision into that of actual definite 
planning of how it might be made a reality. 

The first problem to be attacked was the prob- 
lem which comes to every serious-minded edu- 
cator, that of teaching. A survey of the volunteer 
teaching force revealed some faithful and con- 
scientious, some erratic and irresponsible, and a 
shortage of volunteers. Clearly the church-mem- 
bers had not received a vision of what religious 
education could mean and they were accordingly 
unprepared to accept any responsibility for a 
church school. The committee wasted no time in 



HISTORY OF THE MOVEMENT 15 

trying to find more teachers; it said: "If the 
church wants to instruct its children, let her hire 
professional teachers and pay them. We will 
grade the school as in the grammar grades and 
hire teachers who are experienced in each grade; 
then we certainly can count on regular and able 
instruction." 

Thus did the committee combine some twenty 
or more junior classes into eight grades and elimi- 
nate the problem of teacher shortage. This is a 
radical departure from ordinary Sunday-school 
methods, so radical, in fact, that there was some 
speculation as to how it would be received by the 
parents and church-members generally. But the 
committee had no fear of its ability to define the 
issue and justify the course suggested. The next 
problem to solve was quite as important as the 
first — the material to be used in order that the 
final result might be secured. 

A careful perusal of the best of religious-educa- 
tion courses failed to discover a series of lessons 
which would give all the instruction the com- 
mittee desired. Nothing remained to be done 
but to provide supplementary work which would 
complete the course; this additional work de- 
manded additional time. Would the parents ac- 
cept and support a longer session of the church 
school? There was no way to answer the ques- 
tion but by taking it to the parents. 

The following campaign, designed by the com- 



16 HISTORY OF THE MOVEMENT 

mittee, was presented to the teachers and oflScers 
at the first meeting in the fall of 1919: 

1. A parents-teachers forum extending monthly 

throughout the winter in which this revised 
programme would be presented, (a) Con- 
solidation of classes in one kindergarten grade 
and eight grammar grades, (i) Hire of pro- 
fessional teachers, (c) Study of a regular 
course through eight years with supplemental 
work, {d) Two-hour Sunday session for the 
same term as the grammar-school years. 

2. A vigorous publicity from the pulpit, and through 

the church publication, First Church News — 
a publicity revealing faults in the present sys- 
tem and showing their correction in the revised. 

3. A canvass of the parents in May, 1920, to present 

in booklet form the revised programme and to 
enlist support. This to consist of (a) co- 
operation in seeing that the children attend 
regularly and punctually; (6) interest in the 
work of the school; (c) assistance in maintain- 
ing the proper discipline. 

4. A decision to continue work on the project so 

that it might be put in operation in the fall, 
or to let it go by — contingent upon the result 
of the canvass. 

The programme of the campaign was heartily 
indorsed and the first forum held in October, 1919, 
convinced the committee that there was a demand 
on the part of parents for a complete revision 
of the church-school idea. As the months went 
by, the complete programme was worked out, and 



HISTORY OF THE MOVEMENT 17 

when May came it was ready for final presenta- 
tion in the canvass. 

The canvass in June made by the teachers 
among the parents represented in their respective 
classes showed an overwhelming sentiment in 
favor of trying the new scheme. True, consider- 
able scepticism was encountered, but it did not 
deter parents from saying that they would go a 
little way at least on the untried road , 

During the summer the programme was per- 
fected as nearly as possibly could be done, and 
October 3, 1920, the junior school began its ses- 
sion at 10 o'clock with a corps of professional 
teachers under the director of religious educa- 
tion as principal. From the first Sunday it has 
justified itself and to-day the junior school is a^ 
firmly a part of the church as is the morning service. 
It is the morning service for the children. 

The committee working on reconstruction feels 
now that one of the most valuable results of its 
work was the education that its efforts brought 
to the patrons of the Sunday-school. The school 
had lived in a kind of isolation; people were tak- 
ing it for granted, its weakness as well as its 
strength. Forums, committee reports, publicity, 
discussion brought out suggestions and visions 
for the good of the school. These same adjuncts 
are being preserved in the new organization. A 
parent-teacher association may undoubtedly grow 
out of this experience. 



CHAPTER III 

ADMINISTRATION 

After the officers and teachers had approved 
the plan, it was submitted for jBnal approval to 
the church committee. This body is a representa- 
tive group of church-members including the dea- 
cons, the church staff, and presidents of various 
societies, the committee acting in an advisory 
capacity to the pastor and helping him formulate 
the polity of the church. Before any policy of 
the revised school becomes a part of the pro- 
gramme of the church, this committee must con- 
sider it and formally incorporate it. 

The matter was thoroughly considered, unani- 
mously approved, and the complete plan incor- 
porated as a unit in the church programme. The 
committee also made these recommendations: 

1. That the church school should be under the im- 

mediate supervision of the director of reli- 
gious education. 

2. That the director, subject to the approval of the 

committee, have the power to employ teach- 
ers, select and purchase materials, and in 
every way do what he considered best for the 
school. 

18 



ADMINISTRATION 19 

3. That the trustees be asked to furnish additional 
funds during the coming year out of the 
church budget for the efficient conduct of the 
school. 

The trustees promised that the 1921 budget 
would contain an increased appropriation for re- 
ligious education and indorsed heartily the action 
of the church committee. With the action of the 
board of trustees and the church committee, the 
preliminary step in the reorganization of the 
church school was accomplished. The church 
now was pledged to the support of the school and 
made that pledge a matter of a budget item. In 
contrast to the old-time way of trying to raise 
sufficient funds by leaving it to the ingenuity of 
the superintendent, who in turn struggled with 
problems involving the pennies of children, this 
method of financial administration represented 
a radical departure from the methods of other 
days. The certainty of a settled income from the 
church made the planning of the year's work an 
easier business than formerly. Furthermore, the 
working force of the school did not feel that it 
was a detached unit of the church, but rather a 
definite part of the whole church programme. 

In accordance with the recommendations of the 
church committee, the director of religious edu- 
cation, working with the superintendent, selected 
administrative supervisors for the various depart- 
ments — adult and senior, intermediate, junior, 



20 ADMINISTRATION ' 

primary, and kindergarten. These supervisors, 
with the superintendent, secretaries, and trea- 
surer, constituted the executive board of the 
school. This board has for its work the routine 
business of the schooFs administration, problems 
of unusual importance being discussed by the 
teachers of all departments at a general teachers' 
meeting. 



CHAPTER IV 

ORGANIZATION 

1. Grades. — An arbitrary system of grading 
presents difficulties. The time when the work of 
the various grammar-school grades will be stand- 
ardized is coming, but it has not arrived yet; un- 
til then educators must keep in the advance ranks 
of modern methods looking for the opening that 
will enable them to make more substantial gains. 

Sunday-schools do not approach, in grading, the 
efficiency of public schools; at present the grading 
of grammar-schools may well serve as a model 
for church schools. The system upon which most 
Sunday-schools run is one of convenience and 
not intelligence. Classes include chums whose 
intellectual abilities are often as far apart as the 
poles; boys bring boys into their circles who may 
be older or younger, more intelligent or less; girls 
do likewise, and no regard is had for the diffi- 
culties which present themselves to the teacher 
who must face this assemblage of varying abil- 
ities and attempt to reach all in a helpful way in a 
limited amount of time. Clearly the public-school 
method of grading comes more nearly doing jus- 
tice to the pupils than any method popularly em- 
ployed. 

First Church school was graded accordingly, 
21 



22 ORGANIZATION 

boys and girls being grouped into one grade, that 
one being the same as that to which they were 
accustomed day after day in grammar-school. 
In the high-school division the grading was done 
in a similar fashion, except that boys and girls 
had separate classes. The question naturally 
arose many times: "Why cannot my child be 
with his former classmates?^' But the whole plan 
only needed to be presented again to the parents 
to help them see the reason and to secure the 
necessary co-operation. 

Now the problem of lesson-teaching was sim- 
plified; the teacher had before her children of an 
average type of intelligence and she could teach 
as befitted that type without the fear of failing 
to reach the slower minds or to interest the keener 
members of the class. 

2. Lesson Material. — In the selection of lesson 
material the nature of the whole course had to be 
taken into consideration again. As originally 
planned the work in the kindergarten and first 
eight grades was intended to prepare the child 
for intelligent church-membership; the lesson 
studied, then, must be of such a nature as to 
cover the study of the Bible, elementary facts in 
church history, and the meaning of the church- 
membership. It was found that no course printed 
included all these, so the next best thing was to 
take that course offering the nearest to what was 
wanted. 



ORGANIZATION 23 

The material used for each grade aimed at the 
accomplishment of a certain amount of work for 
the year. The course planned follows: 

Kindergarten: Lessons from nature, from songs 
and stories. 

First Grade: God the Loving Father. f 

Second Grade: God's Loyal Children. 

Third Grade: Jesus' Way of Love and Service. 

Fourth Grade: Lessons from the Bible — Genesis to 
Kings. 

Fifth Grade: Lessons from the Bible — ^Kings to 
end of Old Testament. 

Sixth Grade: Lessons from the Bible — ^Matthew 
to John. 

Seventh Grade: Lessons from the Bible — Acts to 
Revelation. 

Eighth Grade: Lives of Christian heroes, provid- 
ing an outline of church history. 

With such an outline of study the principal and 
the teachers can tell just what work should be 
covered in each grade; accordingly they can build 
the knowledge of succeeding years more intelli- 
gently. 

It has been suggested that the course outlined 
does not include all the material desired by the 
board of directors. There remained for the board, 
then, the work of supplementing the course by 
adding such other material as would complete the 
original plan. 

3. Supplemental Work. — Before making up 



24 ORGANIZATION 

this supplemental work the aim of the eight or 
ten years of instruction was again called to the 
minds of the teachers, and out of the suggestions 
made the additional material was planned. The 
work for the first, second, and third grades found 
expression in the supervisor of those grades, a 
woman of long experience, one who knew and un- 
derstood primary children thoroughly. Too long 
an exposition of the work planned is out of place 
here. Suffice it to say that all those grades have 
drill regularly in memorizing pertinent Bible 
verses, the second and third grades giving not 
only the verse but its location. The Lord's 
Prayer, the Beatitudes, simplified, Ten Com- 
mandments, certain Psalms — all these are in- 
cluded in the curricula of the first three grades. 

The fourth grade gives special attention to the 
natural development of its course — the recount- 
ing of the stories of the first half of the Old Testa- 
ment, lessons to be drawn from them, and the 
finding of such stories in the Bible. The fifth and 
sixth grades treat their work similarly. All three 
of these grades meet regularly every Sunday in a 
half-hour assembly where assigned pupils give the 
stories of their particular lessons, drill in Bible 
fundamentals is had, and the attempt is made to 
bring the world into the minds of the children by 
the recital of missionary history. This latter ma- 
terial is presented by the principal in story form 
with emphasis upon the part played by the local 



ORGANIZATION 25 

church in the support of missionaries and their 
enterprises. 

The seventh and eighth grades have their work 
supplemented by the dramatic expression of cer- 
tain lessons to be found in their regular course. 
During the last half of the year the eighth grade 
has a short talk from the principal every Sunday 
on the fundamentals of church doctrine, organiza- 
tion, and what church-membership means. 

Here at a glance is the outline of the supple- 
mentary work. How it can be presented, how it 
may be added to, are matters capable of adjust- 
ment to local situations. As time passes new 
phases of study will probably be developed; cer- 
tainly the working of the plan is so flexible as to 
provide ample opportunity for the insertion of 
such new study. 

4. Teachers and Helpers. — Around the prob- 
lem of teaching revolves the success or failure of 
any school. The church school used to be placed 
on the excepted list, but it cannot longer be listed 
there if the church faces honestly the matter of 
bringing her schools up to a standard of efficient 
instruction. Time was (and time now is) when 
teachers of Sunday-school classes were used be- 
cause they volunteered to help and not because 
they had any ability as teachers. The church ap- 
preciated their help; it does now. But the time 
is coming when church-members will awaken to 
the fact that instruction of children cannot be 



26 ORGANIZATION 

left even partially to those who are used because 
they offer their assistance. Men and women will 
continue to volunteer, but they must be of that 
character that inspires trust and following, in 
other words, they must be people who have the 
ability to teach. Whether they are paid for their 
services or not is not so important as the fact 
that such teachers must be had. 

First Church school, because of its financial 
basis, sought out and found professional teachers 
and offered them remuneration at a rate little 
lower than the prevailing grammar-school teach- 
er's salary. These teachers possessed that type 
of pioneering spirit that embraces any opportu- 
nity for venture into new fields. Such a spirit be- 
spoke genuine interest and consecrated endeavor, 
a devotion to the ideals which a church would 
implant in its young. Without exception the 
teachers selected have proven faithful to every 
obligation and have, by their own testimony, felt 
themselves repaid many times for Sunday's ac- 
tivity (in addition to a week of teaching) by the 
accomplishment of things hoped for in former 
Sunday-school experience. 

Substitute teachers are provided in every grade, 
and the first few Sundays the regular teacher and 
her assistant work together so that their methods 
of work may harmonize and the scholars know 
both teachers. If for any reason the regular in- 
structor is not present, the assistant takes her 



ORGANIZATION 27 

place and the effect is quite different from that 
produced by thrusting a total stranger in upon the 
class. 

5. Groupings. — In the routine Sunday work of 
the school various groupings have been found 
satisfactory, especially in the matters of assembly 
and of recreation. For instance, the first, sec- 
ond, and third grades meet for the opening and 
closing sessions together; but on account of the 
size of the classes the first and second grades can- 
not combine with the third for the recreation 
period. The fourth to the eighth grades inclu- 
sive have their opening and closing sessions to- 
gether. While the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades 
are having their supplemental work in one assem- 
bly, the seventh and eighth grades are dramatizing 
Biblical and religious incidents. 



CHAPTER V 

THE SCHOOL AT WORK 

The regular Sunday programme of the junior 
school of First Church could not better be de- 
scribed than to give a detailed account of a nor- 
mal Sunday's work. It is conducted in three 
groups — ^kindergarten, primary, and junior — all 
at the same time but in different parts of the build- 
ing. The conduct of the kindergarten is an adap- 
tation of kindergarten methods to religious uses; 
with the help of the proper material and equip- 
ment a good teacher can arrange the work so as to 
secure the best results. (The material used in this 
and other departments will be itemized in the next 
chapter.) 

Primary Department 

At 10 o'clock this department opens under the 
direction of the supervisor, assisted by a pianist 
a?nd a chorister. Until 10.30 the opening exer- 
cises continue, consisting of Bible verses, etc. At 
10.30 the three grades included in this department 
separate for a half-hour's study of their several 
lessons; the classes being grouped in separate 
rooms. Each teacher has a blackboard, and the 
lesson is illustrated there in colored chalk — the 

28 



THE SCHOOL AT WORK 29 

school artist puts the work on early Sunday morn- 
ing. 

The tine for recreation comes at 11 o'clock and 
all three grades gather on the floor of the dining- 
room for twenty minutes of games and motion 
songs. Following the recreation, the classes re- 
sume to do supplemental work for thirty-five 
minutes. Dismissal of the primary department 
comes without a closing session, the teachers feel- 
ing that they would rather have that time for in- 
struction than for a formal concluding exercise. 

Junior Department 

This department opens its session at 10 o'clock 
and for fifteen minutes devotes its time to the 
singing of church hymns. Under the direction of 
a skilled precentor a new hymn is learned each 
Sunday and it is reviewed often enough to keep 
it in the memory. The next ten minutes, some- 
times fifteen, are used for responsive reading, 
prayer, and the principal's story sermon; then the 
classes convene, each in separate places for their 
regular work. 

The eighth grade remains with the instructor 
in dramatics in the assembly-hall, where the open- 
ing is held. This hall is equipped with a stage 
and the necessary accessories, and here the pupils 
study chosen incidents from their class work in a 
dramatic way, the period of practical study and 
demonstration being forty minutes. At the end 



30 THE SCHOOL AT WORK 

of that time, the seventh and eighth grades change 
places — the eighth grade going for class work and 
the seventh coming for its dramatic interpreta- 
tion for forty minutes. The teacher of the 
seventh-grade class work does the eighth-grade 
work also and the same dramatic instructor suf- 
fices for both classes. 

Meantime the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades 
have their class work for forty-five minutes and 
at 11.15 come together in assembly for supple- 
mental work. During the next thirty-five min- 
utes these children are trained in an expressional 
way by the principal (the director of religious 
education); the training consists of standing be- 
fore the assembly and telling the story of the les- 
son of the preceding Sunday, i. e., one from the 
fourth grade tells very briefly the story of the 
lesson he had in his class work last Sunday. Rep- 
resentatives from all three grades speak, and not 
only is public-speaking practice secured but a 
perpetual review conducted, beneficial, not only 
to the sixth grade, but helpful to the fourth and 
fifth grades, because it gives an idea of coming 
work. Oftentimes the teacher divides the lesson 
story among three or four pupils and all take part 
in its recital. This practice takes up the first 
half of the assembly period; the last half is used 
for the other supplemental work — memorizing 
passages from the Bible, Biblical facts, and a 
concluding missionary story usually centring 



THE SCHOOL AT WORK 31 

around the fields of one of the missionaries from 
the local church (First Church supports eight in 
different parts of the world) • 

The junior department reconvenes at 11.50 for 
a closing song, which is usually the new one 
learned at the opening session* The principal 
gives the benediction and the pupils sing the 
" Amen/' The teachers and officers feel that a 
closing exercise is more necessary for the junior 
division than for the primary; acquaintance with 
church worship is taught as a natural outgrowth 
of the whole system of instruction. 

Records and Grades 

The teacher of each grade is provided with a 
card for each pupil. (See page 32.) 

All six of these marks are not made every Sun- 
day, but the first two, attendance and punctual- 
ity, are always made at the beginning of the class- 
study period; a pupil is marked late if he comes in 
after the first song has been sung. The remain- 
ing four spaces are graded by the teacher or her 
assistant (there being assistants in the first to 
fifth grades) during the class period or afterward; 
such marks are matters of deliberation and im- 
pression rather than of snap judgment. Every 
class gives a collection, which is taken during the 
roll-call and is sent to the school secretary, to- 
gether with a statement of the number of pupils 
present. 



Sedotar 

Addpess 1-.....,*. 
Aae^ -..».» — ,. 

Name cf Father. 



FIRST CONGREGATIONAL 
CHURCB SCHOOL 

..^jDhTx.^w.tlK ^ 



i 

Sao. 
dars 


Atftrt- 
dance 


Punet. 
ualitr 


Deport- 


In- 
teresl 


Effort 


AUiMb. 


^Pt Z6 


-P 












to. 3 


T 


r- 


^ 


1 


4. 


f 


^0 






?r 


T) 


cT 


3 


^7 














2*/- 














^Ct 3/ 




































































































































































































































































































































































































































1 









































Teach«r ... 
Grade 



m:. 



Keduced facsimile of pupil's record card. 

Actual size 3^x9H inches. 

32 



THE SCHOOL AT WORK 33 

Once every two months a grade report is sent 
to the home, addressed to the father or mother. 
(See page 34.) Accompanying this is a letter from 
the principal telling of the progress of the school 
or bringing some matter to the attention of the 
parents. While the experiment of grading church- 
school work is quite new, First Church School 
teachers believe that already it has justified itself 
because of the awakening of many adults to the 
seriousness of teaching religious truth. Fathers 
and mothers are coming to the teachers and ask- 
ing about the progress of their children and they 
are showing interest enough to ask questions in 
the home. Such response is not as general yet 
as is hoped for, but the signs are encouraging. 

Graduations 

Until the school is firmly established in the 
minds of the church people and parents the busi- 
ness of passing pupils from one grade to another 
will not be a matter regulated as in the public 
schools. While a church school may have a 
standard for each grade, the system is not strongly 
enough intrenched to say that a child cannot go 
on until that standard is satisfactorily approxi- 
mated. Another way must be devised which will 
recognize good work and place a premium upon 
it to the exclusion of work done in a negligent 
fashion and with no spirit of pride in accomplish- 
ment. 











1 








^ 










n:^ 








a; 










$::: 








^ 








i 


o 








a 










s 


1 


1 


1 


c3 












i 


1 


s 
1 














O 


^ 


J 
















o 


1 


■J 
















Pi 


\ 


« 














j 




> 

•4-) 




■1 

s 

c 
.^5 






^ 






i 
3 


«73 


5 




< 






O 






\ 


1 












Oi 






5 












PU 






1 
i 














a 






i 


n3 cvS 

o ja 




















o 
















! 


fco^ 










tu 






i 


^g 










Q 






• 


>a 




1 


, 




< 






1 


1 « 






j 






<^ 






§ 


.1 o 






i 






O 






CO 


11 


<3J 




^ 
J 










a: 


! 1 

o 


bJD o 
















tf 


^ 


^P^ 


a 


\ P 


cu 










P 


1 ^ 


V7? *^ 


•4— 


: fe 


-*-> 

d 








f- * 


r C 


1 o 


c§ « 


< 


! H 


5 


\ 




[£ 


< 


I ^ 


n ^ 








oi 




S 




' -4^ 


<D 








■TJ 




<; 




;-< 










2 




s: 




<2 


^ 








o 



34 



THE SCHOOL AT WORK 35 

The board of First Church School has decided 
to experiment the present year on this basis: 
Children's Day, the second Sunday in June, will 
be observed as Graduation Day, On that day 
those in the eighth grade who have the consent of 
their parents will be graduated into church-mem- 
bership and into the senior school. A special 
programme will have on it the names of all those 
who graduate and all those who pass from one 
grade into the next. Those who graduate or pass 
honorably will receive certificates, engraved cards, 
while the others who have not done satisfactory 
work, who have been late too often, and absent 
too much, will merely be noted as passing from 
one grade to the next. This step will have had 
adequate preparation because the parents know 
what is contemplated and so do the children. The 
eighth-grade students who graduate into church- 
membership will receive Bibles inscribed by the 
ministers of the church. 

Once again let it be emphasized that the sys- 
tem of grading and graduation is largely an ex- 
periment, but then the whole scheme is one large 
experiment and only time will tell the result. It 
may be said, however, that these aspects of public- 
school administration are also still in the experi- 
mental stage. 



CHAPTER VI 

EQUIPMENT 

Judged from the standpoint of elaborateness, 
the equipment of First Church School could not 
demand a separate chapter. It is because the 
equipment is simple and to be secured with little 
expense that special mention is made of it. Adap- 
tability is the key-note of the whole plan and the 
equipment of any Sunday-school as now con- 
stituted could be used to advantage in the revised 
system of operation. 

Kindergarten 

Little chairs and long, low tables are indispen- 
sable adjuncts of any kindergarten work; heavy 
drawing-paper, crayons, and blunt scissors are the 
materials which the children use at the tables. 
Sand-boxes in the form of long tables with an as- 
sortment of plain blocks are valuable aids to the 
teachers. A blackboard and a piano make up the 
rest of an equipment which, while it could not 
properly speaking be called extensive, is really 
the most elaborate in the whole school. 

First to Third Grades 

Tables and chairs to conform to the size of the 
children are necessary; good work cannot be done 

36 



EQUIPMENT 37 

if the scholar is not comfortable. With the les- 
son material is a note-book for each pupil; this 
book, a pencil, and a box of crayons are kept in 
a large envelope of heavy linen and the envelope 
left with the teacher at the close of Sunday's 
work. The large envelope has the merit of keep- 
ing the scholar's work separate and clean. Each 
of the three grades should have a blackboard; 
upon it the teacher can illustrate (or find some 
one to do it) the work of each Sunday. A drawing 
in colored chalk is appealing to the younger 
scholars. For the assembly of the first three 
grades a child's song-book is useful, although the 
children can be taught by note by a skilled leader. 
(For the name of a good children's hymnal see 
Appendix.) 

Fourth to Eighth Grades 

The same hymnal is used for these five grades 
because of their assembly together; the one in 
use in First Church School is especially good for 
teaching the best hymns of the church. (See 
Appendix.) In contrast to the old-time Sunday- 
school song-book, this new hymnal presents a 
noteworthy departure. 

The lessons studied require a note-book for 
each pupil in the five grades, consequently tables 
and chairs are necessary for the class work. The 
long dining-tables covered with a heavy oilcloth 
may prove very useful for such work. As in the 



88 EQUIPMENT 

other grades each scholar has a large heavy en- 
velope for his note-book and pencil. Blackboards 
and maps are helpful in the fourth to the eighth 
and almost essential in the fourth and fifth grades. 

For the dramatic instruction in the seventh and 
eighth grades a note-book is used by each pupil. 
No text-book covering the field adaptable for stu- 
dents^ use has yet been published, although one 
very valuable for teachers can be secured. (See 
Appendix.) A book which includes within its 
covers simple dramatizations of a number of 
Biblical incidents and episodes in church history 
would be of inestimable assistance in such work. 

On account of the size of classes separate rooms 
are highly desirable; the improved discipline and 
consequent better interest are well worth a vigor- 
ous attempt to secure a room for each grade. 

A stage elaborately equipped is not essential 
to success in dramatizing Bible stories and re- 
ligious incidents; an ordinary platform will serve 
as a starting-point for such instruction. Once the 
elementary principles of ordinary acting are in- 
stilled into the hearts and minds of the pupils, 
special bits of scenery and ideas for costumes will 
come spontaneously. 

When the day of larger interest in religious edu- 
cation arrives, when churches are willing to give 
larger sums to the work of their schools of instruc- 
tion, when church-members feel vitally that the 
children of to-day will be the church of to-morrow. 



EQUIPMENT 39 

then church schools may be supplied with com- 
fortable desks or chairs with desk-arms, attrac- 
tive classrooms, abundant blackboard space, etc. 
Until that time the school must make use of the 
simple equipment at its command. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE MEASURING OF RESULTS 

The measuring of definite, tangible results in 
any kind of religious work has been and will al- 
ways be a difficult undertaking. The difficulty 
exists not because there are no results to measure, 
but rather because those results find expression 
in so many and seemingly unrelated modifications. 
The sociologist who thinks to find by a second 
survey the good accomplished by a new system 
of housing discovers that his first survey has been 
bettered and he also discovers that better housing 
has influenced for the better phases of living which 
he had little or no idea of touching. Like leaven 
in bread his little original leaven has leavened the 
whole lump. The religious-education director 
will come to similar conclusions, time and again, 
and he will never be able to adequately measure 
results. He must content himself with observing 
carefully some of the outstanding rewards of a 
new system and deducting from them some of the 
real benefits of pioneering effort. 

First Church, after a six months^ trial of a new 
system of religious education for its children, is 
trying to measure results, but the church realizes 
that it cannot adequately do this now or even 

40 



THE MEASURING OF RESULTS 41 

years hence. Certain encouraging features have 
emphasized themselves, however, and the most 
important of these is the inauguration of the eight- 
year preparation for church-membership. This 
particular feature is appealing to parents with in- 
creasing force; it is making them realize that 
there really is a definite purpose back of the 
longer programme. Decision days and eight or 
twelve week preparatory classes are and will be 
for years to come part of the method of evangelical 
churches for bringing children into the church; 
no criticism of such a method need be voiced to 
emphasize the more purposeful idea of a longer 
period of preparation. This idea is the foun- 
dation upon which the future of the school will 
be built. To hold before a child through eight 
or ten years of church-school work the ideal of 
graduating into the membership of the church it- 
self is to educate him to a sense of the high privi- 
lege and duties of such membership. The ele- 
mentary principles of Christian living can much 
better be instilled through a long period of in- 
struction than in a shorter term of concentrated 
education. Upon the age-old idea, then, of slow 
painstaking preparation First Church School is 
building and developing its long-term programme 
of church-membership training. 

There follows another result which is becom- 
ing more and more apparent — the children are 
increasingly interested in their work. It was ex- 



42 THE MEASURING OF RESULTS 

pected that a two-hour Sunday programme would 
not appeal to all; but those expectations were 
largely disappointed and the report is continually 
being brought in by parents: "I did not dream 
my child could become so interested in a Sunday- 
school. He comes home and tells us what he has 
learned, asks us questions, and in self-defense 
we are studying the Bible as we have never done 
before/' A high percentage of attendance be- 
speaks an interested pupil and the new system has 
secured a per cent far beyond anything ever 
known in First Church. That the parents are 
co-operating is only another way of stating they 
are interested and trying in every way to supple- 
ment the work of the teachers. 

An increase in practical religious and Biblical 
knowledge was expected and it has come; this is 
not the least of the results to be measured. Noth- 
ing is more discouraging to the superintendent 
of a church school than to visit classes and find 
there the most distressing ignorance of the les- 
sons studied; his work of securing teachers and 
oflScers and his management of them all so that he 
may perfect a smooth-working organization seems 
to go for naught. On the other hand, it is vastly 
enheartening for a principal to know what to 
expect of a certain grade, visit that class and hear 
the pupils give the information he wants to hear. 
First Church School has passed through the first 
stage and is coming into the second; not every 



THE MEASURING OF RESULTS 43 

^holar is a prodigy of learning, but the improve- 
ment in each group is suflScient to furnish ground 
far great expectations. 

Better discipline is another result of the revised 
system that is undoubtedly making for more 
eJBSicient work. Where formerly fourteen teachers 
tried to maintain order in fourteen classes in one 
large room, now one grade containing thirty 
scholars under a teacher and her assistant have 
the room; at present there is hardly a question of 
discipline, where formerly the struggle for atten- 
tion and interest was prolonged and usually un- 
successful. This same condition is found through- 
out the school; it is an eloquent commentary on 
the behavior of the pupils as well as upon the 
ability of the teachers to state that more pupils 
are being taught under the newer form of work 
this year by half the number of teachers used last 
year. 

Too great emphasis cannot be laid upon the 
faithfulness and ability of the teaching force. By 
means of the associate system, that is, every 
teacher having her associate, there has not been a 
Sunday when any class has been without the in- 
struction of one or both of the regular teachers* 
That fact in itself has much to do with the in- 
terest of the scholars, the work accomplished, and 
the general eflSciency of the school. 

One other result among those already enu- 
merated demands mention. Because the junior 



44 THE MEASURING OF RESULTS 

school is held at the same time church service is 
held, the morning congregation has grown con- 
siderably; it is easy to see why. Parents of 
younger children bring them to the school and 
then go to church. Formerly it was a case of take 
the children to church or stay home altogether; 
many preferred the latter course. This state- 
ment gives occasion for the utterance of a com- 
plaint that parents do not take their children to 
church as they used to. That fact is granted, but 
there had better be a movement looking toward 
ultimate church-membership for the children with 
intelligent preparation than a senseless bewailing 
of the departure of the old type of church-atten- 
dance by children. 

These, in brief, are a few of the results being 
secured in and by First Church School now. In- 
terest on the part of the pupil is essential but no 
more essential than parental interest; regular at-^ 
tendance by the children is necessary, but the 
teachers must attend just as faithfully; instruc- 
tion must be well given in the school, but home 
teaching as a supplement makes the original in- 
struction much more effective. These are ideals 
continually preached by educators of all kinds. 
Church schools have viewed them heretofore as 
far off and visionary, but the experience First 
Church School is enjoying ought to convince 
Christians everywhere that such ideals need not 
only be longed for but sought for and attained 



\ THE MEASURING OF RESULTS 45 

m part. When the church realizes that the future 
church is now in the church school no effort 
should be too great to make in behalf of a thought- 
ful preparation of the children of to-day for 
Christian citizenship. 



APPENDIX 



APPENDIX 

The materials used by First Church School, Toledo, 
Ohio, are as follows: 

KINDERGARTEN: 

"A Course for Beginners in Religious Edu- 
cation." (Scribners.) 

"Letters to Parents for Beginners' Course." 
(Scribners.) 

FIRST GRADE: 

"God the LtOving Father." Supplies for teachers 
and pupils. (Scribners.) 

SECOND GRADE: 
"God's Loyal Children." Supplies for teachers 
and pupils. (Scribners.) 

THIRD GRADE: 

"Jesus' Way of Love and Service." Supplies for 
teachers and pupils. (Scribners.) 

FOURTH GRADE: 

"Early Heroes and Heroines." Supplies for 
teachers and pupils. (Scribners.) 

FIFTH GRADE: 

"Kings and Prophets." Supplies for teachers 
and pupils. (Scribners.) 

SIXTH GRADE: 
" Life and Works of Jesus." Supplies for teachers 
and pupils. (Scribners.) 
49 



50 APPENDIX 

SEVENTH GRADE: 
"Christian Apostles and Missionaries/' Sup- 
plies for teachers and pupils. (Scribners.) 

EIGHTH GRADE: 

"Heroes of the Faith." (Arranged chronologi- 
cally.) Supplies for teachers and pupils. (Scrib- 
ners.) 

Music Instruction : 

First to Third Grades — 

"Child Religion in Song and Story.'' (Uni- 
versity of Chicago Press.) 
Fourth to Eighth Grades — 

"Hymnal for American Youth." (Century.) 

Dramatic Instruction : 
Teachers' Text-hook. "Dramatization of Bible 
Stories." (Erwin.) 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Sept. 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
^724) 779-21 11 




"O'-* 746 0,1 



9# 



